Laughing can help improve your mental health; find out how

As such, the mental health benefits of laughter are enormous. “It can help keep you alert, focused, and grounded. Laughter holds so much power in supporting your emotional health,” Dr Naidoo wrote, sharing five such benefits of laughing on mental health in an Instagram post.

Take a look

 

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A post shared by Uma Naidoo, MD (@drumanaidoo) 

*Laughing helps boost your energy and keep you active.

*Laughing also helps increase your resilience.

*Stressed? Share laughter as it is a perfect stress-burster.

*It also leads to increased production of endorphins – chemicals produced naturally by the nervous system to cope with pain or stress.

*It also produces serotonin, which is believed to regulate anxiety, happiness, and mood.

“Remember to take time to feel joy and find humour each day,” the expert concluded.

Talking about the same, Dr Dilip Gude, Senior Consultant and Physician, Yashoda Hospitals, Hyderabad, said, “Laughter therapy is proven to help lessen one’s stress, depression and anxiety. It may also improve self-esteem. The body’s own feel-good hormones, endorphins, are released when people laugh. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain. Laughing decreases stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine, growth hormone, and 3,4-dihydro-phenylacetic acid (a major dopamine catabolite), in our bloodstream whilst increasing highly sought after chemicals in the brain: oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins.”

“These feel-good neurotransmitters are known to enhance learning, motivation, and attention, thereby, fighting many mental illnesses. Laughter therapy is a kind of cognitive-behavioural therapy that could make physical, psychological, and social relationships healthier. It has a positive effect on mental and cardiac health, lowers blood pressure and improves the immune system as well. Laughter therapy does not require specialised preparations, such as suitable facilities and equipment, and it is an easily accessible and acceptable, noninvasive and non-pharmacological alternative treatment for stress, depression etc,” he added.

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